Depression and Serious Disease

It is probably not uncommon to associate depression with serious disease.

Not all diseases elicit the same depressive response.

Consider these statistics: by Therese Borchard• Nearly 50 percent of asthma patients have symptoms of depression.At least 40 percent of people with Parkinson’s disease experience depression, andanxiety is often reported.45 percent to 65 percent of people who have had a heart attack live withdepression.The lifetime risk for depression in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) is 40percent to 60 percent.Nearly 30 percent of stroke patients develop depression.

Grief is common in people facing the end of their lives as a result of a terminalillness. It’s a feeling that can cause a terminally ill person to experience even more painthan they do from their illness. However, it’s considered a normal reaction to theirsituation.

“But in many terminally ill people, grief evolves into depression. In fact,researchers at Baylor University Medical Center believe it affects up to 77 percent ofpeople with a terminal illness.”(Depression in the Face of a Terminal Illness and Death,healthline.com/health/depression/terminal-illness)Ewan Hector’s story, “When I first started my healing process, professionals toldme two things which sounded incredibly weird and wrong, as if they completelymisunderstood depression. They sounded topsy-turvy. But after a while what they saidproved to be true. The third is something I worked out.

1. Actions come before feelings. My generation has been told that what you feel is more importantthan how you act. Thus, “you should only do what makes you happy (as long as it doesn’t harmothers). But when we’re depressed, we lose interest in the very things that used to make us happy.And the things which didn’t make us happy, those chores which we already loathed, grow from awee hill into an impassable mountain. So we do neither the things which normally would make us
happy, nor the things which we need to do for survival. This is destructive. When we’re depressedif we wait until we feel we want to do something we never will. So we need to learn to do thingsregardless of how we feel about them, whether we are overwhelmed by them or completelyapathetic. Doing the dishes (or eventually throwing them in the dishwasher) may not make us‘happy’, but that’s not the point. ‘Happiness’ is transient. Tidying the kitchen is about clearing theworkspace, to help you think things through and clear your headspace. Brushing the floor is aboutsweeping aside feelings that tell us we can’t do it and we’re not good enough. Most importantlydoing any of these things proves to ourselves that we can climb the mountain. And that’s anexperience that lasts through each successive bouts of depression. You can say “I’ve climbed thisbefore. I can climb it again.”

2. What you’re experiencing is normal. My psychologist said that. I stared in the middle distance andprotested her point. But she didn’t say that to minimize what I was going through. She said it to make me realize that comparing myself to others by saying “well they’re able to cope” wasn’thelpful. She told me that it was normal to feel these emotions from time to time. Someone elsemight feel them to a lesser degree or the same degree but has learned through years of experiencehow to cope. To look at their outward lives and determine that they are much better than I andtherefore I’m a failure because I should, like them, be able to cope is downright foolish. She alsosaid this to help me think what my normal is; what “healthy” looks like to me, what coping lookslike to me. That was a light bulb session as I was then able to focus on what I was feeling withoutthe baggage of societal expectations.

3. Healing isn’t like healing from most physical ailments. There are some preventative drugs, but byand large we go to the doctor, get some pills or have treatment until the symptoms go. Depressionisn’t like that. I need to keep doing the things I need to do to keep me healthy, to minimize thelikelihood of another bout. To everyone else, these are just normal adult responsibilities, but to methey are a life-line.” (Ewan Hector, What are 3 weird tips about depression?,https://www.quora.com/What-are-3-weird-tips-about-depression/answer/Ewan-Hector-1)Being depressed can make you feel helpless. You’re not. There’s a lot you can do on your ownto fight back.“In most cases, a complete treatment plan for dealing with depression includes psychotherapy,also called “talk therapy.” The therapist, a psychiatrist, psychologist, or other mental health
professional, can help you overcome depression.” (www.everydayhealth.com/depression/treating)

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If you feel you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It is a free, 24-hour hot line, at 1.800.273.TALK (8255). Your call will be connected to the crisis center nearest to you. If you are in an emergency, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room. Counseling On Demand does not offer crisis counseling or emergency services.